The present invention relates to a combat vehicle, especially an armored vehicle, with a rotating turret on a hull and with an entry-and-exit hatch that can be closed with a cover and that is mounted in the roof of the hull.
The covered entry-and-exit hatch on known turreted combat vehicles has been positioned, along with the devices that provide the driver with a view of the exterior environment, outside the area within which the turret rotates.
Reinforcing the armor in both the hull and the turret has made it necessary to displace the hatch to where it is at least to some extent within the area occupied by the turret. The result is that, when the hatch is opened, the cover must somehow be conveniently shifted out of that area.
Another problem derives from the positioning of the viewing devices, which are usually periscopes. The viewing devices in the first type of aforesaid known combat vehicles could be positioned in front of the hatch. Since, however, the driver's seat in later models was very far to the rear, the viewing devices had to be positioned behind the hatch to ensure satisfactory visibility, which, however, made it difficult to enter and exit from the vehicle. To eliminate this problem, then, the viewing devices had to be shifted out of the driver's way.
These problems lead to the partial integration of the viewing devices into the hatch cover, which had to designed to lift and pivot or lift and slide. The drawback to this solution was that it required a large hatch and hence a large hatch cover with a lot of weight to be shifted. The cover opening and closing mechanisms became complicated. Another disadvantage is that the circumference of the hatch, which must be sealed off, was longer.
The most difficult problem involved in these known designs, however, was the location of the viewing devices. The given hatch design, the extent of free space between the hull and the turret, and the limited potential for accommodating the devices in the hatch lead to unsatisfactory visibility. Spatial relationships allow the viewing devices to be displaced or rotated only within the available planes. Although the devices could be positioned out of the driver's way only be displacing them toward the center, the given geometry would not allow this.